Clay Aiken: 'I don't blame RCA'

Clay Aiken has insisted that he doesn't blame his former record label RCA for steering his career in the wrong direction.

The singer told US Weekly that no one person was at fault for his early image and that labels had no idea of how to market him.

"I don't blame anybody. If I were the folks at RCA and I got handed someone like me handed [over] and I didn't get to choose them, I wouldn't know what the hell to do either," he explained.

"They did the best they could for no track record for Idol. To some extent, there was an effort to try to make me what a popstar is supposed to look like, sound like and be like, instead of having too much opportunity to do what I should be doing."

He added that his new album Tried and True combines his American Idol-style pop with his personal preference for old standards.

"I think that to some extent, anybody who comes off the show sort of needs to stick with what brought them through that dance. I loved what I got to do on Idolevery week. They were great songs that I really enjoyed singing and when I got off the show I didn't get a chance to do that as much," he said.

"So this is probably the favourite album one I've done. I loved the last one. I had a lot to do with it and I picked songs within the parameter set for me by others. This time, I got to be involved from day one."

Tried and True was released on June 1.